There’s been an explosion of collaborative consumption — web-powered sharing of cars, apartments, skills. Rachel Botsman explores the currency that makes systems like Airbnb and Taskrabbit work: trust, influence, and what she calls ‘reputation capital.’

This talk made me realise how much of these services a lot of us early adopters take for granted. For example: our ability to temporarily live on someone’s property, or our ability to temporarily drive a car, a van or a bike. More importantly, our ability to live life in whatever way we want whilst making new, trustful connections with people we would never have met otherwise.